Nico Hülkenberg actually wanted to make it into Q3 in qualifying in Qatar, but with 15th place the Haas driver missed this goal by a relatively wide margin. The German was half a second shy of the top 10, which he had achieved in training with seventh place. But Hülkenberg was no longer able to match the form of the afternoon in qualifying.
“We expected a little more from ourselves,” he admits in an interview with “Sky”. How great the expectations were can be seen from the fact that Haas took an unusually long time in Q1 to complete a first lap: Hülkenberg only took to the track for the first time ten minutes before the end of the session.
Haas wanted to save on tires so that they could give themselves a better chance of a good result with a new tire in Q3. “But in the end it wasn’t enough in Q2. We didn’t find enough speed compared to the others,” says Hülkenberg angrily, who had expected a much dirtier route because the wind would blow sand onto the slopes again.
“But I think it was limited,” he says.
Wind causes problems
Like many other drivers, Hülkenberg fell victim to the track limits on his fastest lap in Q2. In turn 5, the Haas driver went off the track, so his lap time was canceled.
The wind in particular made it difficult to adhere to the route limits, as he says: “The wind is a difficult constant,” he says. “It’s sometimes very inconsistent, unpredictable when you catch a gust or the gust hits the car and then you have to struggle.”
Although Hülkenberg’s fastest lap was deleted, it didn’t really have an impact. Because even if time had counted, getting into Q3 would have been a long way away. At least he would have been in 14th place ahead of Alexander Albon.
“My track limits in Q2 ended up making a difference in place, so it was a cheap mistake,” he says angrily. But: “We just didn’t have enough speed.”
Formula 1: Kevin Magnussen only 19.
Things went even worse for teammate Kevin Magnussen, who only finished 19th and is now 5:12 behind in the qualifying duels. The Dane didn’t cope well with the fact that he didn’t drive here in 2021 (like Hülkenberg, by the way).
“It’s a new route for me and I found it a little harder to learn than I had hoped,” he admits. “The track is quite difficult to drive and it took me a while to master it.”
“So I still have a lot of lap time to find. We still have a long weekend ahead of us and of course we’re disappointed with P19, but we’ll try to improve in the next session,” he says.
Because Saturday offers the drivers the next chance, because the next session will be another qualifying session: namely the shootout for the sprint. Then all drivers in SQ1 and SQ2 will have to drive with medium tires. “Let’s see how it works,” says Hülkenberg.
“I’m actually in a good mood, optimistic,” he says. “I really like the track, it has a cool flow. It’s fun to drive here and it’s dynamic and fast, so I’m looking forward to more.”